Reply to this post | See parent post | Go Back

View Post [edit]

Poster:	Cliff Hucker	Date:	July 23, 2007 06:25:07am
Forum:	GratefulDead	Subject:	Re: unknown may 68 show

I studied this all night.
My guess is late spring or very early summer.

To me the sound is somewhere in between the "swing" type shows of early 1968, and the "bare wires" high-energy jamming prevalent that summer when St. Stephen was more likely to be played en suite with Dark Star and The Eleven.

But who knows for sure?

http://www.deadlists.com/default.asp

"Although this fragment circulates as "Fall 1968", "3/22/68 Detroit", and "May 1968", it is from an unlabeled reel. There is an entry for this set list on p. 164 of Volume 1 of the Deadhead's taping Compendium. According to Rob Eaton: "There were 5 unlabeled 7 inch reels found in the Vault many years ago. Several contained very early versions of Stephen. The tape you describe is one of these unknown reels. The best estimate for a date would be April/May 1968 or spring '68."

http://www.archive.org/details/gd68-08-23.sbd.sacks.52.sbefail.shnf

I do know for sure that this is some amazing music and I have always enjoyed the Reggae/Dub organ intro on Cryptical with its very cool little Golden Road Jam. Also, this extraordinary New Potato Caboose features some exquisite playing by Jer and is one of my favorite versions. Thanks Tigerbolt!

This post was modified by Cliff Hucker on 2007-07-23 13:25:07

Reply to this post

Reply [edit]

Poster:	Lou Davenport	Date:	July 23, 2007 02:48:47pm
Forum:	GratefulDead	Subject:	Re: unknown may 68 show

Cliff: I'm going from memory here, but doesn't the NPC have an annoying (sorry!) 13-beat jam? Are there other pre-August NPCs that do? That's why I (casually and perhaps ignorantly) thought fall.

Reply to this post

Reply [edit]

Poster:	Cliff Hucker	Date:	July 23, 2007 03:05:16pm
Forum:	GratefulDead	Subject:	Re: unknown may 68 show

You could be right, Lou. But there are so many shows missing from March-July, who can say when they first started experimenting with a thirteen time signature?

And while agree that the best NPC's pre-date the later versions containing this jam, this one is extremely cool and just might be my second favorite Caboose, Jer's amazing solos towards the end completely blow my mind!

Reply to this post

Reply [edit]

Poster:	Lou Davenport	Date:	July 23, 2007 06:04:28pm
Forum:	GratefulDead	Subject:	Re: unknown may 68 show

The only reason I gave this version an A- (the lowest score in my rigorous A+, A, A- grading scale) is that Phil is so annoyingly low in the mix--yes, my scale incorporated listenability as well as raw musical value--and Phil is so much the point of NPC that I couldn't see highly rating a version with so little of him. But I agree with you that Jerry is on fire.